Hey Jim, can you expand on this comment? Not sure I follow.

 

you cut the shroud and the filter is exposed to the outside air in front of the radiator.

 

I thought you were talking about the Halltech Stinger... I have the stinger with the CAI addition and have been very pleased. I don't believe the filter gets contaminated with this layout.

Thanks again.

 

put a stinger on. My car is heavely moded, cam headers tunning etc.
two days later set a lean code at idle both banks. Put my stock box back on. It has the primary covers cut off flush with K&N's. Cleared the codes and you guessed it: no codes.!!!. Now, I'm going to my tunner today work the idle a bit( increase) to see if that cures the code problem with the Halltech. He says the way in which the air comes in over the maf or the rate at which it's delivered is not making the MAF happy. We'll see if it works. Other than that it worked fine. Sometimes you wonder: I was making 420 RWHP before halltech, why not just leave it alone. Easier said than done!!

 

I spoke with a LPE rep about this issue and he said, "Don't submerge it and it will be just fine."

 

Sounds like you were getting more air. isn't that the point?

 

OK I can see that. If you get hit by a wave 2 ft high you could have a problem. Where do you think that might happen? It's not in my driving experience. Also,filters are meant to get dirty, that is their function. Is the point to try to save on filters or get max performance?

 

I can't say for a fact that your car will or will not hydro lock in a given situation with these intakes, but I do have a cone filter that sits a few inches from the ground on my MX-6.

While rain is rare here, it can get pretty deep when it does, and I have been forced through puddles that most certainly submerged at least a good portion of my intake, and my engine is just fine.

Air can be pulled through the filter and against gravity much easier than water so as long as air can still get through to the engine, you aren't going to ingest water. Throttle position will also play a role as the negative pressure of the intake will increase with your right foot.

Just go easy on the throttle, and as long as you stay out of lakes, I don't think you'll have a problem.

The story of the truck passing by and causing a vette to hydro-lock is possible, but requires a lot of variables to be perfect. The wave would have to be perfectly formed to cover the entire surface of the intake, and the driver would have to be giving it engough gas to pull the water through the filter and into the engine.

I do believe $400 is a lot of money for what you get, but I have read enough posts that swear it is money well spent to believe that it is the case. I've read that it is really the throttle response and the sound that makes it worthwhile, not the 10 hp.

 

I purchased the Lingenfelter and I love it. Installation was good as long as you follow the directions. I absolutely notice the increase in performance. I highly recommend the lingenfelter.

Good luch and have fun

Rick

 

This is just something to consider. Outside of vendor claims the halltech, lpe, and callaway intakes have all produced very similar results overall on real world cars like ours. To me it seems pretty simple. The chance of hydrolock may not be great but it is increased with a bottom feeder. Dont want to take that (slight) added risk then your a stinger guy. Dont drive in the wet or care about hydrolock then pick the one you like best based on whether you want more induction sound, build quality, etc. Real world performance difference isnt worth talking about.

 

Not a witch hunt.

All I can tell you is that Halltech doesn't offer the best customer service, from personal and direct experience. Mine and others.

My credit card was charged for items never shipped. First denied, athen admitted but not corrected. It took forever to get it corrected. I'm not the only one that this has happened to, and I don't have time for business like that. I was just trying to help someone else from falling in the same trap.

The hardware may be fine now (it matches the Donaldson and the K&N), but the people that stiffed other folks (like jimman) on their warranties and charged credit cards (like me) for non-existent products are still running the company. In 2005. Today.

What makes you think they've changed?

I'm glad you had a positive buying experience. Good luck.

Take care. seeya:

 

Call Halltech directly, they may be able to help you. Let us know the results.

 

EHS, not sure what type of customer service issue you had with Halltech, or when for that matter, but I have had great results out of Halltech. His customer service has been better than most in my experience.

Opinions are like as-holes, everyone has one but some stink more than others. Mine included.

Everytime I have called Jim Hall this year he has been more than willing to stop what he is doing and talk with me on the phone or respond to my email. When I had a minor issue with the coupler on the Stinger, he sent a new one, no questions asked. My experience has been limited to this year, but his customer service has been down home good.

To get back to the real question started in this thread, if you have any concerns about water entering the filter, stay away from any intake that opens the radiator shroud directly to the filter. I don't know if the Stinger makes more or less horsepower than others, but I do feel pretty safe when I have to drive around in the rain.

 

redhot6, thanks for the non-confrontive reply.

Yes, I agree, that's how Jim treated me as well, all smiles while he was putting it to me. Right through the whole credit card process. He was the nicest guy, so was his wife, always apologetic, always willing to take a call, always willing to talk. But, never willing to issue a credit for merchandise (the orignal TRIC) they never shipped.

This wasn't a confusing issue, to him, or to me. He agreed it wasn't shipped. But apparently things were a little "tight" that month. He even admitted in several of those "nice" telephone conversations he didn't ship, just never wanted to issue that credit. So just keep an eye on your credit card statements for the next few years.

It was only after I stopped the charge, filed all kinds of documentation, etc., that I got a credit. Maybe other people have had different experience, but there are enough on the other side of this issue that it has become a common theme -- it's not a witch hunt, I just want you to know what has happened to me and others. That's what this forum is about.

Remember, I first ordered the original TRIC exactly because I had read all the great threads about Halltech on Corvette Forum. And I got screwed. That's how I personally got boxed in. I never wanted to get into this detail (see my first post above), but several people asked for more explanation.

But, like you said, back to the thread.

There is no better "proof positive" that "cold air rules" doesn't work, than Jim Hall and Halltech. He gave an "absolute bullet-proof no questions asked" warranty on the original TRIC -- it will never suck water and blow your motor, or we'll pay for the repair. That's what he said. But, after the first four or five blown motors (like jimman's above), the warranty payments stopped, and the arguments started.

Play it safe, and so yes, if you are concerned about blowing an engine due to water ingestion, don't go cold air. Even Jim Hall agrees (now), which is why he only sells Donaldson Blackwing type of systems these days. But, boy, you should have been here for those debates with Jim back in 2000 and 2001. Kind of just like this one.

Thanks for listening.

 

EHS,

I'm right with you bud... NEVER again will I ever purchase a Halltech product... From my cracked CF airbridge (I had to epoxy it) to my unfortunate incident due to the crummy fit and finish of the 1 piece TRIC intake... I've installed a lot of mods on a lot of cars and while Halltech stuff is not junk and it looks decent, it's not always engineered as well as it could be (material or execution issues). The worst part, Halltech's customer service is sort of - oh we already have your $$$, we'll "think" about it...

To the OP - think of it this way... You're comparing one of the best aftermarket tuners in the world to another that doesn't come close. Not a hard choice in my book

I have not had recent dealings with Mr. Hall, nor do i have any experience with his C6 intakes, but the fact that the intake designs change many times should raise a red flag - it's not continuous improvement but rather "tinkering".

Some of us "old timers" have the benefit of a bit of hindsight.

 

How come everyone beats up the LPE intake for being a bottom breather but the Vararam has been a C5 staple for years without any hydrolocking issues that were not caused by drivers trying to be a U-boat commander. And it draws right from the front screens on the C5. The LPE intake has the filter mounted atleast as high as the Vararam and uses a much larger filter element then the Vortex Rammer. The larger element provides more area to draw from so in the event that the filter become partially submerged (~1.5 feet of water), there should still be plenty of open filter for the engine to run on. Of course this is providing that you are not trying to gun the engine through the puddle also. If the filter area was marginal, then I would be worried but I think for 98% of the conditions you are going to see on todays roads, the LPE intake will serve you just fine. I think if you did a survey of all vette owners and asked who has had hydrolocking issues, you wouldn't be as worried.

Jersey

 

I have purposely stayed out of this thread, because I do not want to argue with anyone on this issue, but I will say one thing.

We are very up front about the possibility of hydrolock with a bottom breather, we even go as far as to put a warning sticker on the box that you have to cut through to open the box. If a consumer is worried about the issue, then please do not buy our product.

With that said, I still stand behind my earlier statements that ours is the best C6 air intake on the market, and no one has posted any information that would prove otherwise. There are plenty of these in the hands of Corvette owners, and it looks as though they are willing to post their opinions. That should give anyone that's interested enough information to make a decision.

Thank you,
Ed

 

Thanks for clearing that up Ed-'nuf said.

 

bob53, as one "old-timer" to another, ...thanks. cheers:

And Ed@Lingenfelter -- you have a great product.

 

This has been very interesting seeing that I'm having the Halltech Stinger put on my C6 this coming Friday. I chose it based upon 2 factors, 1) the poll that I posted that had more votes for the Halltech than the LPE (granted it was a small and not a valid outcome) and 2) which I considered to be more important, the Vette shop that has been slowly modding my C6 recommended the Halltech. So far I have Corsa Sports and DynaTech SuperMAXX headers. Getting the CAI on Friday and will have it tuned and dynoed on 12/10. I'll post the dyno results after that.

I am not sophistocated nor technical enough to add to this thread, but I trust members of the Forum and I trust my C6 shop.

Jeff